Template talk:SurnameArticle

From Familypedia

Contents 1 Questions 2 Page name may be two words: problem? 3 Infobox width needs a limit 4 Adjusted for "Abel (pagename)"? 5 Other things worth adding?

[edit] Questions

1. Why is "Blank template" there?
2. Why require anyone (presumably) to enter a surname when {{PAGENAME}} should do the job?
3. Why make people look up Wikipedia during the complex process of creating a surname article instead of just making it a Wikipedia-search link (using {{PAGENAME}}) that people can later examine? See http://genealogy.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Surname#Models for an old unchallenged statement of the value of a one-click search.
4. Will Template:Infobox Surname be now obsolete?

Robin Patterson 04:56, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

• 1. People new to using this template may need the <!-- --> instructions. Other people who know what to fill in don't need the <!-- --> notes.
• 2. Good idea.
• 3. Good idea.
• 4. Yes. I am going to transfer all pages using the template to the new format.

-AMK152^{(talk • contribs}) 14:06, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Page name may be two words: problem?

On another wiki I found that a search using PAGENAME didn't work for a two-word page name, requiring users to replace the whole of {{PAGENAME}} with the name, replacing each space with a plus sign. Could that happen here? Robin Patterson 03:24, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

When searching? Or the appearance on a page? -AMK152^{(talk • contribs}) 16:12, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox width needs a limit

See Ferguson. Robin Patterson 03:24, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

OK, you gave it a width but that has not solved the problem for me! Robin Patterson 01:21, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

It's fine now; maybe you did something more or I had a cache problem. Robin Patterson 04:16, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

I think it might be better a little wider than 200, to cater for some long names without having too many wordwraps. Robin Patterson 04:16, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

How about now? -AMK152^{(talk • contribs}) 16:11, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Adjusted for "Abel (pagename)"?

Has it been adjusted (possibly having to abandon PAGENAME) or does it need no adjustment since we added " (surname)"? Robin Patterson 04:21, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

PAGENAME has been abandoned. -AMK152^{(talk • contribs}) 16:01, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Other things worth adding?

Heading "External links" with one or two standard ones if possible, such as

1. Internet Surname Database, which currently has twenty times as many surnames as we have and could therefore fairly safely be a standard link (and is very skimpy in its sections other than meanings, so will not be undesirable competition) - http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name= - or that could be part of the infobox. AMK to draft the code? (Or maybe I can!)
2. Cyndi's List - has surname sections but would need a bit of manual work.
3. Rootsweb mailing lists - about 7 times as many surnames as we have, such as http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/surname/b/babbage.html - also needing a bit of manual work

Robin Patterson 12:45, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Time flies when you are having fun! Belated thanks to AMK for fixing all the things I queried above. Now these additions. Anyone like to add them either here or on the related page (perhaps soon to be merged) - Genealogy:Model surname article page? Robin Patterson 11:40, 19 September 2008 (UTC)